YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT CHALLENGE

Youth unemployment is one of the principal social and economic challenges of this decade in Europe and around the world. Long spells of unemployment can have serious long-term effects for individuals, such as reduced earnings and social exclusion.

A striking feature of the recent crisis has been the diversity of labour market performances among EU countries. Remarkably, youth unemployment rates in Germany and Luxembourg declined slightly between 2008 and 2010. However, they increased in all other countries and quite dramatically in some. Countries that have been hit the hardest by the recession are among those with the highest youth unemployment rates – Greece, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia and Ireland.

There are some small gender diff erences to the patterns. The unemployment rate for young women, overall in the EU, was 1.6 percentage points lower than the rate for young men. There are only seven countries in the EU where the unemployment rate for men was lower than for young women: Czech Republic, Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus, Poland, and Portugal.

It might be expected that the economic crisis would impact young people much more than adults because of their higher propensity for temporary work and the drying up of opportunities to enter the labour market for their first job. In reality, the increase in youth unemployment was not much more than for adults.

Read more by clicking the title Policy Brief on Youth Entrepreneurship

Middle English parlai speech, probably from Middle French parlee, from Medieval Latin parabolare, from Late Latin parabola speech, parable

First Known Use: 1580*

“Parley” is a discussion or conference, especially one between enemies over terms of a truce or points in dispute or other matters; mutual discourse.

The root of the word parley is parler, which is the French verb “to speak”.

Beginning in the High Middle Ages with the expansion of monarchs, a parley, or “talk”, was a meeting held between kings and their Chief Retainers. Parleys were part of the many changes in Europe, especially regarding governments. These meetings can be attributed to the formation of parliaments, which are derived from a similar root, parliamentum, simply meaning “talking”.**

Act V Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Drum. Enter BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and their Army; LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MESSALA, and others
BRUTUS: They stand, and would have parley.